Ventrillo on iPhone

Image via Wikipedia

Ventrilo, the Internet‘s answer to the phone… perhaps except for Skype! So is it a bad idea to expect it on the iPhone? Probably. While it would be fun to have it on the iPhone, it would probably make the phone itself redundant, something that Apple probably wouldn’t be too happy about.

So, has anyone found anyway to get past this? Having a search around Google mostly brings up threads asking if the app exists or is in the making, but one person seems to have found a… sort of solution:

I just bought a new cell phone and I am sitting in a 3-month “Unlimited Local Talking”. Now I thought that it would be cool to be able to call a number and get linked into Ventrilo while you are out. Totally useless in my eyes as no one would ever use it except for this one moment that I wanted to use it. In thinking about that though, I got even more ideas which eventually lead me to develop (or think up) a portable Ventrilo Client.

1) I set up Ventrilo‘s speakers and microphone to my “Sound Blaster” card. I set my microphone to “What U Hear” so that any noise my computer made, was transmitted on the microphone channel.

2) I opened up Skype (as I have a $3.00 Unlimited Canada-US Calling Plan on it) and set the microphone also to the Sound Blaster’s “What U Hear” mode and the speakers to “Sound Blaster” (you can probably see where I’m going with this now).

3) I called my cell phone from Skype. When I spoke into my cell phone, it was sent to Skype, which then in turn sent it to Ventrilo so everyone can hear. Anytime someone talked on Ventrilo, Skype would pick up the noise as my microphone’s signal and send it to my cell phone allowing me to hear what was happening in Ventrilo.

Now the only problem that I was faced with was the ability to keep transmitting the signal. Taking off “Push To Talk” and leaving the sensitivity on did not produce any results as the program was canceling out its own sounds causing the “talk light” to never come on. So I had to use “Push To Talk” in order to transmit.

While it isn’t a hands on and easy app, it might give us some way to use Ventrilo on the iPhone. The problem is, it probably isn’t worth the trouble in the end. I was actually looking for something to hold me over instead of looking up free SIM cards, but this method may be a little too complicated for me

Overall, I wouldn’t expect this to appear as an official app any time soon, and I imagine that if it was made as a jail-broken app, Apple would probably take a much, much stronger stance against it.

Left 4 Dead 2 Voice Commands

Moved to Left 4 Dead 2 Voice Commands.

Microsoft challenges Steam

Image by Cystie via Flickr

Don’t change your sets or grab your getaway car hire yet, you probably won’t be playing Team Fortress 2 on a Microsoft application tomorrow, but this is interesting for us gamers nonetheless.

Microsoft‘s new service Games on Demand (Or G.O.D if you like) looks set to challenge Steam. It seems as if so far though, there are no huge gaming titles (other than Resident Evil 5) available on the service – but do they have the usual array of smaller, cheerful gaming titles.

What Microsoft had to say about it: “Our goal has always been to create a seamless online gaming experience for the Windows community, and Games on Demand is a great step toward that end.”

According to downloadsquad.com, the service will be a clone of Xbox Live (although the comments say it’s the same service, which sounds interesting) with achievements, gamerscores and voice chat.

What will Microsoft bring to the table to compete with Steam? Can they beat Steam’s already amazing offers on top selling games? Perhaps they will buy exclusive rights to certain titles?

I’ll be installing this when I get home and watching it for updates (that’s if it’s not as bad as things like EA‘s downloader).

On a quick  and unrelated note: Since my phone is playing up at the moment (yay for paying the bill and still being disconnected) I’m going to be getting a free SIM from somewhere until mine works again – does anyone know if you’re able to temporarily swap your number over to free SIM cards and back again when you’re finished with them?

Need a… Dispenser?!

Yep. He did it.

Two New TF2 Weapons

Charge and Targe

A little late, I know! But I couldn’t get the images to edit correctly when I was using my mobile broadband, so late news is better than no news!

Behold, the new Demo weapon: announced on the 14th of December, the Demo need not get a car hire for those long and boring journeys anymore (though, let’s not forget the always useful ‘sticky grenade” method of travel), not with his new charge! It looks like we’re going a little medieval.

The Eyelander

The Eyelander holds to a principle all one-eyed Scotsmen with no depth perception have known for years: you don’t kill a man by mucking about with rifles, arrows, rocks, or other long-distance rubbish. You kill him by grabbing the biggest bloody sword you can find, running up nice and close to him, and chopping the dumb bastard’s head off.

Made with pattern-welded Damascus steel, this melee-slot weapon offers a guaranteed decapitation with every killing blow. Unfortunately, because it’s haunted, it will suck away some of your soul: expect a decrease in your max health at the outset. However, once the blade feeds on neck, you’ll receive a boost in max health and speed. With each new protesting head you cleave (up to four), you’ll get healthier and faster.

The Eyelander will not deal critical hits unless used in conjunction with the Chargin’ Targe’s charge ability.

The Chargin’ Targe

The Chargin’ Targe solves a centuries-old Scottish riddle, which is that shields exist. True, the shield might block the occasional sword blow. However, they are essentially weapons to be used for hiding behind, and this is a concept the average Scotsman does not understand. “If I were to pick up this cowering-plate, I would have to put down my second sword,” a Scotsman thinks. “And surely that is madness.” The Chargin’ Targe solves this riddle by turning the useless shield into a deadly weapon you can run at people with and then bludgeon to death.

The targe replaces your tried-and-true sticky bomb launcher, but offers some unique capabilities in return, especially when used with the Eyelander. Just equipping the Chargin’ Targe provides automatic +50% fire damage resistance and +65% blast damage resistance. But the Chargin’ Targe’s main perk lies in its name. Alt-firing will hurtle you toward an enemy at a punishingly damaging high speed (far faster than a Scout can manage).

Charging also boosts the lethality of your melee weapon. Land a melee hit during a medium length charge and you’ll be guaranteed a mini-crit. Land a hit during a long distance charge, and your victim will receive devastating full crit damage.

Direct Hit

The Direct Hit

Nobody can deny that, measured solely by their ability to blow people into chunky clouds of tomato soup, rockets are an incredible force for good in the world. But with their wide blast radius, they are not a particularly terrific weapon for showing off your sharpshooting skills.

Until now. A high precision version of the standard-issue rocket launcher, the Direct Hit has been engineered from the ground up for Soldiers who have mastered the art of shooting at their targets instead of vaguely near them. Those of you looking to deal splash damage, stop reading now: the Direct Hit has a 70% smaller blast radius than a traditional rocket launcher. But the rockets that come out of this thing move fast and hit hard: 80% faster and with 25% more destructive force. Best of all, for you real sharpshooters, the Direct Hit guarantees mini-crits on airborne targets.

Copenhagen 2009

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

With all my posts about mobile broadband and games, I’ve not touched on this subject before. Whether or not you are concerned by the effects of climate change (no pun), I think this is worth a look, if only to find out about it: climate change Copenhagen.

The UN climate change summit will be taking place in Copenhagen between the 7th and 18th of December. Here’s hoping we see some needed changes. If you’d like to read in more detail, I found the wiki page to be quite a good read.

Here’s what the Oxfam page has to say:

What the world needs from Copenhagen

Action: A commitment to a rapid and significant reduction of greenhouse gases, with rich nations reducing emissions by at least 40 per cent by 2020.

Cash: $200bn must be made available for poor countries to adapt to the immediate impact of climate change and to develop in a sustainable way.

Justice: Rich countries must take most responsibility for the problem they did most to create.

Why the world can’t wait

Oxfam is already helping people adapt to the effects of climate change in 20 percent of the countries we work in. The scale of the problem is huge:

250 million people in Africa could be facing water shortages by 2020 as a result of climate change.*

Sea levels could rise 50cm by the end of the 21st century, exposing millions more people to flooding.*

There will be 150 million ‘climate refugees’ by 2050 if global temperatures continue to rise unabated. And that’s a conservative estimate.*

* Source: UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, 2007.

Tips on reducing your greenhouse gas emissions, read more here:

House & Garden

1. Grow your own food.
2. Eat locally.
3. Redecorate with Eco-products.
4. Buy energy-efficient appliances with the “Energy Star” label.
5. Sign up for renewable energy.
6. Reduce your heating.
7. Reduce your electricity use.Try alternative energy devices.
8. Buy durable goods. Install a hot water heat recycling unit to significantly reduce either electricity or the fuel burned for domestic water heating.
9. Reduce the usage of refrigerants and air-conditioners.
10. Pack your refrigerator more tightly to reduce cooled air.
11. Use a reel (cylinder) lawnmower.
12. Reduce your fully vented septic tank greenhouse gases by using a septic vent pipe filter.

Water Conservation

These tips will help save money on your bills as well as water.

1. Take short showers and share bathwater.
2. Pollute less.
3. Turn off taps properly.
4. Fix dripping taps.
5. Turn down your water heater.
6. Use appliances efficiently.
7. Use an efficient dishwasher instead of washing dishes by hand.

Transportation

It may take up to one year for one tree to fix the amount of CO₂ found in 3 litres of gas, so:

1. Buy a bike and use it.
2. Buy an electric bike or an electric motor add on kit for a regular bike.
3. Walk short distances rather than drive.
4. Use public transportation or carpool for long trips. This could work with sharing cars, or even using a car rental.
5. Consolidate your trips.
6. Use less gas.
7. Consider ditching the car altogether.
8. Research biodiesel.
9. Research energy efficient, electric, hybrid and diesel engines when buying a new car, motorbike or scooter.

Diet

1. Eat low on the food chain.
2. Buy local produce when you go to the grocery store rather than items trucked in from far away, and bring it home in reusable bags.
3. Buy sustainable or organically-produced food.

Shopping

1. Buy only post-consumer recycled paper products, including toilet paper and tissues.
2. Buy certified FSC wood to support sustainably managed forests.
3. Take corporate action.
4. Look for the CarbonCounted logo.
5. Avoid using plastic bags from grocery stores.

Community

1. Look into Transition Towns.
2. Knowledge is power.
3. Write to the editor of your local newspaper about the dangers of global warming.
4. Start a petition.
5. Call a local radio talk show to tell them you care about global warming or to question a skeptic.
6. Join a national or local environmental group that is fighting the climate crisis everyday, so their membership numbers swell and their voice has more power.
7. E-mail relevant articles to your friends and family to get them up to speed about global warming.
8. Write to your local council to ask for environmentally minded services such as recycling collection.
9. Educate yourself, you family, your friends, your co-workers and everyone you meet.

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Live from the Copenhagen climate change summit ’09

The UN climate change summit in Copenhagen is a massive opportunity to tackle global warming. Nothing less than a safe and fair deal for the world’s poorest people will do.

Click the tabs below to get the latest news and views direct from the conference, plus stories of ordinary people making the politicians sit up and listen.

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For more videos from Oxfam’s team in Copenhagen, click the Videos tab below.

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An estimated 60,000 people flood London for The Wave

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Stories

Videos

Blogs

About Copenhagen

Ordinary people, extraordinary efforts

You don’t need to be a big cheese to show world leaders the human cost of climate change.  Oxfam supporters at Copenhagen are getting the message across – the ingenious, persistent, vocal and feisty way!

Rob “The Insider”Bailey

<!–When Oxfam policy adviser Rob Bailey talks about climate change, governments listen. That’s because he’s got thousands of Oxfam supporters behind him. He’ll be giving us his view on the talks so far and explaining why your support matters.

–>Rob Bailey, Oxfam’s climate expert at the Copenhagen talks, explains how your support helps him get the message across to policy makers and government advisors.

Pushpanath “The pilgrim” Krishnamurthy

How far would you go to stop climate change? ‘Push’ Krishnamurthy is walking all the way to Copenhagen, and getting as much media coverage as he can en route! We’ll be catching up with him at the other end. Here he is setting off.

See also: Climate Charge – activists hitch-hike to Copenhagen

Joe “The Wave” Public

Yes, that means people like you! On 5 December 2009, more than 50,000 people from across the UK took to the streets of London for The Wave climate change demonstration. Another 10,000 went to a similar rally in Glasgow. Here’s what happened:

Still to come…

We’ll be posting more stories of supporters making a difference as the summit progresses. Still to come:

Shorbanu “The Witness” Khatun

Mother of four, Shorbanu, from Bangladesh lost her husband and her home as a result of the effects of the changing climate. She’s come to Copenhagen to tell the world climate change costs lives and a fair, safe deal must be struck.

Anna “The Negotiator” Collins

“We all have a right to a say about what’s being negotiated in our name. The fate of our planet, shouldn’t be decided behind closed doors.” Anna’s following every move of the UK negotiation team in person so they stay on track for a fair and safe deal.

Today in Copenhagen

Our team in Copenhagen are compiling all the best bits from each day at the summit. Get the latest news, views, and exclusive interviews from our carbon-neutral host, the inimitable Mr Green!

Blogs we like

We’re browsing all the best blogs from Oxfam and beyond so you don’t have to…

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Copenhagen Blogroll

If you want to explore further, we recommend the following:

• More from Oxfam’s climate change blog
• Oxfam International blog -
  Live blogging direct from the Oxfam team in Copenhagen.
• Climate Voice -
  Oxfam supports Climate Voice, a live blogging project from Copenhagen that involves almost 50 influential online reporters and bloggers.
• Press materials -
  All of Oxfam’s press releases and materials from Copenhagen.

Copenhagen 2009

It’s no exaggeration to say that the outcome of The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Copenhagen, 7 – 18 December 2009, will affect everyone on the planet. This is the biggest opportunity ever to strike a fair and safe global climate deal. Future generations will live with the consequences of decisions taken at this meeting. With the right deal signed and sealed at Copenhagen, the world will be able to emit a giant sigh of relief. And the future will look a lot brighter. For all of us.

What the world needs from Copenhagen

Action: A commitment to a rapid and significant reduction of greenhouse gases, with rich nations reducing emissions by at least 40 per cent by 2020.

Cash: $200bn must be made available for poor countries to adapt to the immediate impact of climate change and to develop in a sustainable way.

Justice: Rich countries must take most responsibility for the problem they did most to create.

Why the world can’t wait

Oxfam is already helping people adapt to the effects of climate change in 20 percent of the countries we work in. The scale of the problem is huge:

250 million people in Africa could be facing water shortages by 2020 as a result of climate change.*

Sea levels could rise 50cm by the end of the 21st century, exposing millions more people to flooding.*

There will be 150 million ‘climate refugees’ by 2050 if global temperatures continue to rise unabated. And that’s a conservative estimate.*

* Source: UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, 2007.

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[12:04] De tre olika blocken ser varandra, polisen gör sitt bästa för att de inte ska kunna mötas. #rpa #cop15
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War: Soldier Vs Demo

Image by Cystie via Flickr

War is upon us, gentlemen. For the last few days we’ve been unable to leave the safety of our homes without being caught in the splash damage of a stray rocket or grenade… Perhaps not that much has changed… but what is to blame for the increase of crit rockets being fired into your spawn? Friendship.

It seems as if the Demo and Soldier have been caught out. A visit to the eye museum together, sharing a car rental to the gravel pits of America, even fishing… Fishing! Surely the bond they have forged cannot be broken?

With this war, we find out that very man has a price, and friendships are easily broken. While I would happily start shooting rockets at any of my friends for the price of an iPhone with mobile broadband or a new PC… It seems some people aren’t so cheap.

The Demoman and Soldier will be given a new and custom weapon everyday from here on out until we reach the weekend. What do they have to do to earn these? Wipe each other out. The class which accumulates the most kills until then will win a bonus weapon as reward.

The current standings:

Soldiers killed: 4,923,531

Demomen killed: 5,056, 134

Who do you want to win, and why?

I feel my reasons for wanting Demo to win are just:

1) Soldiers already two hit me as a sniper (the first hit leaving me with about 10 health and difficulty aiming because I’m in mid-air)… I understand the irony here, but at least I have to aim for their head and predict where they’re going to run (Huntsman!)

2) I usually play on a map where demos jump very high up on the map. Perfect for free kills!

The war still continues, and if you’d like a taste of it, Team Fotress 2 will be free this weekend starting on Thursday night.

You can read about the war here.

Mass Effect 2 Engineer Class Gameplay

Image by rwcandeer via Flickr

If you’ve read my blog before you may have noticed that I’m a big fan of Mass Effect, and that while I’ve been away for a bit there’s been a lot of updates regarding the sequel.

While I won’t go over all of the new features, I did want to share the recently released video of the engineer class. I’m sorry to say that it doesn’t look like he/she carries a wrench around… Oh, the humanity.

They do however, have some pretty cool looking features. Perhaps what the Tech class from Mass Effect 1 was missing. The ability to be able to incapacitate and weaken the artificial enemies in the game was always pretty cool, but now we’ll be able to deploy combat drones and freeze the enemy, and apparently a lot more.

Don’t worry though, your favourite parts of the game have also been updated. Did you love the 20 second lift sequences? Now you can experience the lift sequences like never before, with high-definition, high-octane elevator action! Or did you prefer exploring the desert planets in your brightly grey coloured jeep? Mass Effect 2 brings a pimp my car version of planet exploration where you take a car rental and install it with sub woofers, neon lights and an unnecessarily loud engine!

But really, the gameplay:

If the video doesn’t want to work, try here: Mass Effect 2 – Engineer Class Trailer

On the subject of Mass Effect, has anyone played the mobile broadband version of the game from the iPhone‘s App Store? I haven’t had a chance to try it out yet, but it looks like it has a lot of the conversational options that Mass Effect has.

Rest in peace, Jimmy Gibbs Jr

Image by Cystie via Flickr

Or rather, quite literally, in pieces.

If you’ve played Left 4 Dead 2, you will have heard of the legend that is Jimmy Gibbs Jr. You may have even gassed up his car to escape a shopping centre full of friendly zombies.

We’ve heard stories about him:

Jimmy Gibbs, Jr. is the man. I mean I don’t know anybody like that, man. But there was this guy I knew, he raced dirt tracks, not stock cars but open wheeled cars you know, and he was racing once and a goat…

We’ve heard the survivors opinions of him:

[ At the beginning of the Atrium Finale ] “Oh, hey! Jimmy Gibbs!

Nick“I’m getting sick of looking at this guy’s face”

Coach: “Well trust me – in these parts, he’s as famous as….Elvis. Or the President.”

Nick: “Really. ‘Cause he looks like an asshole.”

Coach: “Get yo’ ass movin’, Nick.”

We know that Ellis would kill to meet him:

“Now hold on. You been makin’ jokes about Savannah all day long and I’ve held my tongue. But don’t belittle Jimmy Gibbs, Jr. That man is the pride of Georgia.”

“Aw, hell. I coulda got my picture taken with Jimmy Gibb’s stock car? I HATE this apocalypse.”

But perhaps Eliss should have been careful what he wished for. It turns out that hidden in the files of the game is the model for the man himself… except, he’s a little rotted. He apparently spawns very rarely in the Dead Centre finale when you’re gassing up his car to escape, and the survivors reactions to seeing him are pretty awesome – ranging from “NOOOOOOOOO!” to “Dibs on Gibbs!”

To have a look at him in game, open the console on the main menu and type these commands:

map atrium

sv_cheats 1

z_forcezombiemodelname common_male_jimmy

z_forcezombiemodel 1

z_spawn

Forget the car hire, I’m sure now that Jimmy is proven dead (or should I say infected)…. He won’t really mind if you take his car.

I’ve included a screenshot I took of him too, I mainly took it because his legs looked really messed up after I axed him down… a few times.

You can also increase the zombie limit and force a panic event so that you get an onslaught of Jimmy, but I’m sure most people know how to do that. If not, I can update later via mobile broadband.

I fully expect to see zombie Keith next.

I ever tell you about the time Keith and I made fireworks? Now, I didn’t know shit about chemistry, but Keith figured, “Gasoline burns, doesn’t it?” Third degree burns on ninety-five percent of his body. Man, people in the next city over were calling to complain about the smell of burning skin.

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• Sadly, Jimmy Gibbs Jr. Did Not Survive The Zombie Apocalypse [PC] (kotaku.com)

Team Fortress 2 invisible and MotD fix

Image by Cystie via Flickr

I’ve noticed the post about fixing the lag in Prototype has had quite a lot of hits since I’ve made it, so why not carry on by helping out by posting fixes to other annoying problems I’ve found?

I’m updating from my PC rather than my mobile broadband today, too.

A couple of fixes for Team Fortress 2 this time, these two are the only bad ones I’ve run into so far.

Fix invisible players

First off, the invisible bug. This usually happens after alt-tabbing out of the game and then back in. Most players will still be visible, but if you’re lucky enough, you’ll be killed by an invisible player. A tried and tested method of fixing this is to just restart the game, but why do that if there’s an easier way? You need not get a car rental to go buy a new PC!

1. If you already have the developer console enabled and bound to a key, skip to step 4
2. Go to Options -> Keyboard tab.
3. In the list of keyboard bindings, bind a button to toggle developer console.
4. Next time you get killed by an invisible person, open the console and type “record demo”, hit enter, then type “stop” and hit enter again. This is generally used for recording your game as a movie onto your hard drive – but it seems to fix the invisible issue too.

I’ve noticed that alt-tabbing also renders textures in the game purple sometimes, I’m afraid the only way I’ve seen to fix this is to restart the game (although changing server might work) or wait for a map swap.

Fix MotD and welcome message crashing/freezing

I was the only one who had this problem, but it gave me major headaches. I searched for ways to fix it, but there didn’t seem to be many people having the same problem back when I tried.

When you join a server, a message of the day or welcome screen will show up, this is usually a HTML page embedded into the game which can have pictures, music… anything HTML related. My laptop really didn’t like this, so it crashed nearly every time I joined a server, forcing me to CTRL+ALT+DEL.

One of the methods I first tried was to uninstall Internet Explorer (which I don’t use) from my Vista. This still might work, but it didn’t for me because IE seems to be intertwined with the version of the OS I have, and is impossible to uninstall in any way (no menu icons, not in control panel). I then resorted to setting IE to offline mode, this was pretty much a band aid fix, as the game minimized every time I joined a server and made me click ‘Stay offline’ about 6 times, and still crashed now and then.

The last method worked perfectly, and turns off everything that is HTML about the MotD. Yes, I do feel like an idiot for not seeing it before.

1. Go into Options -> Multiplayer tab.
2. Click Advanced.
3. Scroll down the list until you see ‘Disable HTML MotDs’ and check it.

There’s also some other helpful options here, like setting the medic gun to always heal your target instead of having to hold it down, auto reloads and auto scopes.